When the iPad-only news subscription app The Daily launched, it debuted on the App Store with a free two week trial courtesy of Verizon. Today, it has emerged that the free trial has been extended until February 28 as News Corp. awaits the release of Apple’s iOS 4.3 firmware update.

The iOS 4.3 update will introduce in-app recurring subscriptions to iOS apps, a platform that will underpin subscriptions to The Daily.

Given that Apple announced today that it had enabled in-app subscriptions on its App Store, the update shouldn’t be too far away. It was rumoured that the update could drop today but the normal timeframe which it usually releases updates has already passed.

News Corp. has yet to confirm how many users it has amassed in the first two weeks since it launched. Publishers and consumers will be waiting for the public release to see how well the iPad app fares; it has already been confirmed that The Daily cost $30 million to set up and will cost $500,000 to run weekly.